KAZAKHSTAN: AMBASSADOR ACCOMPANIES NASA DELEGATION TO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASTANA 000560

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN, OES/PCI (PHUDAK, NFITE)
MOSCOW FOR NASA (DMCSWEENEY)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL TSPA SENV RS KZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: AMBASSADOR ACCOMPANIES NASA DELEGATION TO
BAIKONUR FOR SOYUZ LAUNCH

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1. (SBU) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet.


2. (SBU) SUMMARY: During March 25-27, the Ambassador accompanied a
NASA delegation to the Baikonur cosmodrome in south-central
Kazakhstan to observe the launch of a Russian Soyuz space capsule
destined for the International Space Station. All Soviet and
Russian human spaceflight missions have originated from Baikonur.
Kazakhstan currently leases Baikonur to Russia for $115 million per
year through 2050. On launch day, May 26, the Ambassador and the
NASA Delegation headed for Site 254 where the group witnessed the
crew suit up and then toured the Baikonur Space Museum. Finally,
after arriving at the launch site's viewing stands, the delegation
observed the successful launch of the Soyuz TMA-14 space capsule.
U.S-Russian cooperation and partnership in space exploration has
endured in spite of political ups and downs in the overall bilateral
relationship and may become even more fruitful and productive in the
future. END SUMMARY.

AMBASSADOR ACCOMPANIES NASA DELEGATION


3. (SBU) The Ambassador, together with the Regional Environmental
Officer (REO),accompanied a NASA delegation to the Baikonur
cosmodrome in south-central Kazakhstan to observe the May 26 launch
of a Russian Soyuz TMA-14 space capsule destined for the
International Space Station (ISS Flight 18S). The Soyuz crew
members were Commander Gennady Padalka (Russia),Flight Engineer
Michael Barrett (U.S.),and Space Flight Participant Charles
Simonyi, a former Microsoft executive from the United States who was
making his second trip into space. Senior NASA delegation members
who attended the launch included Associate Administrator for Program
Analysis and Evaluation Michael Hawes, Associate Administrator for
Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier, Kennedy Space Center Director
Bob Cabana, and Johnson Space Center Deputy Director Ellen Ochoa.
Anatoliy Perminov, head of Roskosmos, Russia's federal space agency,
also attended the event, as did Russian Ambassador to Kazakhstan
Mikhail Bocharnikov and representatives of the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency.

BAIKONUR BACKGROUND


4. (SBU) The Soviet Union originally constructed the Baikonur
cosmodrome as a site for the testing and development of its first
ICBM and later expanded the site in the late 1950s to accommodate
space flight activities. All Soviet and Russian human spaceflight
missions have originated from Baikonur. After the collapse of the
Soviet Union, Baikonur fell under Kazakhstan's control, and Russia
and Kazakhstan now have an agreement under which Kazakhstan leases
Baikonur to Russia for $115 million per year through 2050. Located
in semi-arid south-central Kazakhstan, the Baikonur cosmodrome
covers approximately 4000 square miles of territory (80 by 50 miles)
and contains 52 launch pads. The nearby city of Baikonur, built to
support the cosmodrome, had been a secret town with various names
over the years in an attempt to hide the cosmodrome's actual
location. Down from a high of 100,000, the city's population now
numbers approximately 60,000. It sits on the north bank of the
Syr-Darya river, one of the two major rivers in Central Asia that
flow into the Aral Sea. In addition, the Moscow-Tashkent railroad
runs through Baikonur.

VISIT TO BURAN AND SOYUZ LAUNCH SITES


5. (SBU) After their arrival at Baikonur, the NASA delegation drove
from the cosmodrome's Yubileyniy airport -- where the Buran Space
Shuttle landed after its one and only orbital flight -- across bleak
empty steppes to visit the Energia launch site, where the heavy-lift
Energia rocket was launched for the first time. Since 1993, this
launch site has not been used, and signs of its sad decay led one
observer to comment that it resembled a "Mad Max" movie set. The
delegation then traveled to the Soyuz launch site to see the rocket
that would be launched the next day. The Soyuz launch site contains

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a moving memorial to the historic first Sputnik satellite launched
into space in 1957 from this site -- an event which profoundly shook
the U.S. scientific establishment and helped spur the establishment
of NASA. The monument's inscription says simply: "It is here that
the genius of the Soviet people began their audacious assault on
space."


6. (SBU) One could feel the imprint of history and the ebb and flow
of Soviet and Russian endeavors over time. Observing the rocket
that would be launched the next day, one NASA scientist commented
admiringly that this Russian rocket's design is basic and simple but
durable, robust, and reliable, and it can be launched in any
weather. He noted that U.S. rockets are high-tech, sophisticated,
and very capable, but they are more dependent on the weather
conditions being optimal before they can be launched.

BAIKONUR THE CITY


7. (SBU) After visiting the launch sites, the delegation arrived for
its stay at the Sputnik Hotel. The Sputnik is a reasonably good
quality hotel, but it is far from being a luxury establishment. The
hotel restaurant, enjoying a de facto monopoly because of its
somewhat isolated location on the outskirts of Baikonur city,
required delegation members to order meals off a special menu that
cost 35 euros per person, even though the menu also had cheaper
alternatives, which the delegation was told were "unavailable." REO
learned from a NASA official that this had not been the case the day
before, but the hotel would not budge, because it claimed that it
always moves to a fixed-price meal the day immediately prior to a
launch. A number of delegation members (REO included) walked 40
minutes into town to a pizzeria, crowded with young Kazakhstani
enjoying the evening out. The prices were all in Russian rubles
(reflecting the "leased" nature of the city),but one could also pay
in tenge, the Kazakhstani currency -- unlike at the Sputnik Hotel,
which refused tenge and would only accept dollars, euros, or rubles.
A NASA photographer, who had been to Baikonur some fifteen times
since 1993, said when the pizzeria first opened, it was the first
western-style restaurant in Baikonur, and competitors started a
smear campaign, pasting leaflets on trees all over town warning
citizens that they would become deathly sick if they went to eat
there. Judging from the crowded tables at the pizzeria the night we
visited, it appears the campaign has failed to dissuade Baikonur's
youth from frequenting the establishment.

SUIT UP AND SPACE MUSEUM


8. (SBU) On March 26, Launch Day, the NASA delegation departed the
Sputnik Hotel in a heavy rain and headed for Site 254, where the
group witnessed the crew suit up and report to the Roskosmos State
Commission on its readiness for launch. While the crew went to the
capsule, the group toured the Baikonur Space Museum, which is filled
with historical memorabilia of the Soviet and Russian space programs
and their achievements, saw one of the Buran Space Shuttle orbiter
test models up close, and visited the cottages of cosmonaut Yuriy
Gagarin (the first man launched into space on April 12, 1961),where
he spent the night prior to launch, and Sergey Korolev, who is
considered the founder of the Soviet space program.

SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH


9. (SBU) The delegation then arrived at the viewing site, an
open-air covered viewing stand one mile from the actual launch site.
Shivering and cold, the group watched the rocket carrying the
Soyuz space capsule successfully lift off the pad and disappear into
the clouds, leaving behind a fiery tail in its wake. We could not
help but feel, at that moment, that we had witnessed something
special that few people actually have a chance to see. We also saw
a clear instance of the continuing close U.S-Russian cooperation and
partnership in space exploration that has endured in spite of
political ups and downs in our overall bilateral relationship and

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may become even more fruitful and productive in the future.

HOAGLAND